By Commissioner Jordan Russell
Over the past year, the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission reviewed, updated, and implemented a revamped fee schedule for medical and hospital services. The revised fee schedule is the first update since the inception of the WCC in February of 2014, and it is the first schedule developed by the WCC’s team in consultation with the national consulting group FAIR Health. This year’s fee schedule revision was the first of a statutory biannual review process under which the Commission employed the services of an external, national consultant selected through a competitive bidding process. The fee schedule development team was led by Commissioner Jordan Russell and included a wealth of knowledge from other WCC staff members, including Executive Director Hopper Smith, Medical Director Jay Cannon, M.D., Legal Operations Director Eric Russell, J.D., General Counsel Lauren Hammonds Johnson, J.D., Chief Financial Officer Andrea Delling, and Docketing Clerk Valerie Stahl.
In order to update the fee schedule, the team reviewed nationwide and regional data including medical and hospital rates paid by both public and private payors, within and outside workers’ compensation markets. The team also conducted comparative analyses of fee schedules from neighboring and other comparable states. The Commission conducted two thirty-day written comment periods seeking public and stakeholder input and also held two public hearings for spoken comment. On March 26, 2020, the proposed revised fee schedule was approved by unanimous vote the Commission and submitted to the Legislature. The Legislature approved the proposed revised fee schedule by House Joint Resolution 1028 on May 14, 2020, and the resolution was signed by Governor Stitt on May 22, 2014. The revised fee schedule became effective July 1, 2020.